What's Happening

An update on what's happening with me: I'm getting more pregnant, less nauseated (not always), a bit less tired, and hopefully a bit more wise. Here's what I'm up to:

• I am finding that the best pregnancy advice comes from my girl friends and trusted women. My lovely yogini friend and two-times baby veteran Laura tells me to listen to my gut and instinct when it comes to advice from people or the internet. This makes a lot of sense to me, especially as I start to read about placenta and ponder if I should eat mine, let it shake before cutting, decide whether to make a placenta painting, etc. My lovely doula (http://www.bbdoula.com/) also tells me to smile and nod my head when I hear baby advice, which comes in handy when my Turkish relatives suggest me to not reach upper shelves, not carry groceries and if possible live on my couch. I nod and do sun salutations (lots of arm lifting), get light groceries and even teach headstands in my beginner yoga class, all with a clear conscious :)
• I am reading on babies, how they cook up, what they need when they're out of the belly. See my book list at damlayoga here. Add to that Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth, and my doula's recommendation: Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn. I am finding that there's a certain time limit for me in reading these books. After that I feel babied-out and switch to yoga, meditation, chakra balancing reading. So far so good :)
• I am eating a well balanced vegetarian diet with occasional seafood added. Cooking fish in the house is out of the question, I can feel the scent in my bones (and on the sofa) days after. My nutritionist advises that as long as I keep my plate a good mixture of grains, veggies/fruits and protein, and take 1000 grams of calcium a day I'm good to go (hint if your yogurt satisfies %15 of daily need, it has 150 grams of calcium). I also take Nordic Naturals fish oil, prenatal vitamins and a probiotic. I feel fine and my blood counts are excellent, my Turkish relatives, please don't roll your eyes.
• My biggest support is mumu, he is there to rub my shoulders, pour me soup or listen to me whine all day about my lack of energy, nausea and baby-fears. So what if he's not reading the baby books and instead started another 10 book fantasy series on his kindle. He deserves a little break from me and the little one, at least until the little monster arrives :)
• I am yet to dive in deeper but I love love love my soul-cousin Sedef's parenting blog: http://parentcoachsedef.blogspot.com/. Her advice is based on connection parenting method developed by Pam Leo. Pam's book is on my reading list. Another great blog/resource I like is Rene Syler's http://www.goodenoughmother.com/. She is fabulous and I love her honest, imperfect advice.
• I have not purchased a single baby thing yet. I repeat, I have not purchased even a single pair of socks. I think at this point my mom has more baby stuff she has been collecting for me than I do. The one thing I have came in mail, one day I was pondering how nice it would be to hang a dream catcher by the little one's bed and voila! the next day I received a free dream catcher in mail from a Native American school asking for donations (needless to say they did get their donations :). Other than that I am, at this point in time, clueless as to what I should be buying. My doula says that I only need a few baby clothes, lots of diapers and me for the baby. She tells me that initially the baby doesn't even need a bed, she/he can sleep on me or on the bed. At the same time I see girl friends or acquaintances make/plan/work on gigantic baby registries with tons and tons and tons of stuff. I think I am somewhere in between. I know I need some things. Part of my waiting is that even though I have a sense of the gender, I'd like to get the ultrasound confirmation and get all pink crazy or blue crazy after that. The other part is that in our tiny two-bedroom house we need to pack some of our books and other stuff to make space for the little one. So no space=no purchases. Did I mention I am open to suggestions on this regard? Please do share your extensive lists with me if you have them! I can't promise I'll follow them to the letter but they would sure be helpful!
• Yoga Nidra at this point is a blessing. I found a ton of free offerings at spotify.com and I listen to them whenever I can to relax, go to sleep, digest or keep my food in, etc. Highly recommended! I am finding that meditation is harder these days but there's something so soothing about listening to someone's voice and following their instructions. My favorite one: Yoga Nidra Relaxation by Swami Muktibodhananda Saraswati.
• Public note: I don't mind people touching my belly, touch away! In fact while at it, give me a back rub and a shoulder massage too. Please keep good vibrations and intentions when you do :)
• Despite everything (the tiredness, nausea, being overwhelmed,...) pregnancy is still a magical journey. I speak to Minnosh daily. Mumu and I imagine what she/he'll look like. We even started to imagine our grandchildren visiting us in our future seaside house :) After my first ultrasound I found myself looking at my yoga class and imagining us all as 2 cm long beings with heartbeats, which we were at some point! So it's a shocking and touching and sometimes gruesome, sometimes wonderful journey.